Coulter vs. The Counter-Coulters

By

L. Brent Bozell III

January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

Ann Coulter's new book "Guilty" is out
and two things are certain: It will surely be another best-seller, and she will
once again drive the Left bonkers. No institution will be more offended than the
national press. Prepare to witness their meltdown.

The Drudge Report caused a
firestorm when anonymous NBC insiders leaked the word that Coulter
had been "banned for life" from that network. CBS featured her on
"The Early Show" and a combative Harry Smith tried to insult her to
the extreme. He called her "goofy," "simplistic," "sophomoric," and
a "whiner." "You should have a cross," he said dismissively. "You
should put yourself up on a cross." Why are they so upset?

The so-called "objective"
media clearly feel threatened because they are the very liberals
Coulter is attacking. If they weren't liberals, none of her mockery
of liberals would bother them. Oh, they might not appreciate her
style, as some conservatives don't. But they wouldn't have pitched
debates inside their walls about how they will savage her in
interviews - and I defy the networks to deny this - or how they
would remove her from their airwaves altogether.

Those rumored bans have
been demanded by the leftist lobbyists for the Censorship Doctrine -
people who say they oppose "conservative misinformation," but
clearly want conservatives tossed from the radio and TV airwaves
before "misinformation" or just plain conservative thought spills
out. They have pressured the networks to stop helping Coulter sell
books. Freedom of speech is truly a dangerous concept when
conservatives exercise it.

But liberals who claim to
oppose "inflammatory rhetoric" on television when it comes from
conservatives have no problem with uncivil liberalism. Or 100
percent hate-filled left-wing character assassination. Take NBC,
which could not look sillier if it ever seriously banned Coulter for
being hyperbolic, when vicious, hyperbolic liberals (Olbermann,
Maddow, and Matthews) dominate MSNBC.

It's easy to run down a
list of inflammatory liberals who are welcomed on the TV morning
shows. Start with Kitty Kelley's wild "investigative" books on the
Reagans or the Bushes. Or Michael Moore's kooky conspiracy theories.
Or Al Franken suggesting Karl Rove and Scooter Libby should be
executed over Plamegate. (NBC's Matt Lauer and his off-camera crew
laughed at that.)

Or recall Bill Maher on his
HBO show in 2007 suggesting Arianna Huffington shouldn't ban
commenters on her website wishing Dick Cheney had died in a
terrorist attack in Afghanistan. "That's a funny joke," Maher said.
"If this isn't China, shouldn't you be able to say that?" He added
that Cheney's death by suicide bomber might be a public service:
"I'm just saying if he did die, other people, more people would
live. That's a fact."

Harry Smith hosted Maher on
CBS just months ago on his faith-mocking movie "Religulous" and
didn't say one discouraging word to him about his caustic remarks
about Cheney or his hateful anti-Christian bigotry. Not one word.

But when Ann Coulter
speaks, the brass knuckles come out. In 2007, Coulter was heavily
criticized for joking that she couldn't talk about John Edwards,
since an ABC actor was forced to apologize for saying "faggot" at
the Golden Globes. Liberals were furious. Coulter responded by
saying next time, she'd echo Bill Maher and just wish Edwards died
in a terrorist attack. Elizabeth Edwards then denounced Coulter for
suggesting she wanted her husband dead. Harry Smith invited Mrs.
Edwards on CBS, offered her brief softballs and let her verbally
whack Coulter with a bat.

Smith is an enormous
hypocrite. He completely ignored vicious remarks by Mrs. Edwards
just days before, in accepting a "Rage for Justice" award, that the
Bush administration was waging a class war that compared to
slaughters in Darfur:

"The White House has led
the charge against working people, in their own class war. The late,
great Molly Ivins once wrote: 'If there was class warfare, that war
was long over. And it was a massacre... a genocide to which there have
been words of acknowledgment, as there have in Darfur, but as with
Darfur, no meaningful action.'"

But when Ann Coulter comes
on the set with Smith, the gloves come off.

Ann Coulter's
liberal-bashing columns and books and television appearances are fun
for conservatives, simply because there's nothing funnier for the
right that witnessing CBS putting up on its own screen a Coulter
quote about Ted Kennedy and CBS: "Kennedy may be a drunken slob, but
unlike CBS News anchors, he is not certifiably insane."

Call Coulter outrageous,
call her a bomb-thrower, even state she goes beyond the pale of
civility, if that's your read. But do not assign that label to
Coulter and then present your on-air love and kisses and giggles to
all the public leftist hate-spewing that far exceeds any perceived
incivility by Coulter. That is utterly transparent liberalism, and
utterly transparent hypocrisy.

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